With the advent of the Internet and its use for electronic commerce, consumers worldwide have become increasingly concerned with how businesses are collecting and using data about them. Consumers are generally not opposed a business anonymously aggregating their buying preferences with other consumers to more effectively target merchandise selection and advertising. However, consumers have expressed great concern as to the collection and use of their personal information. Several countries have enacted laws to protect personal information along with its distribution.
For example, consumers can provide information about themselves to third parties by storing this information on devices such as magnetic cards, smart cards and the like and would be used for other purposes such as credit/debit or stored value smart cards, frequent shopper points (value) and the like. Thus, a need exists in the art for a method and device for storing personal consumer information in which the consumer has control over which information is provided and to whom the information is provided.
The present invention discloses a software method for creating a multilevel customer database that provides consumer data privacy via a smart card or other personal storage device. The method allows the merchant or business to access specific information that the consumer is willing to share. Each individual consumer maintains control of information that he or she considers to be personal, private, and only divulges the level or type of data that he or she feels is appropriate.